New Schooling for the New School

Conner Coffin took out number one seeded Brazilian Anejo Muniz is the final heat of the day. Muniz was the talk of the event so far -- a cut above the rest, so they said, and a shoe-in for next year's WCT. But despite Anejo's reliable ability to stick two air-reverses on any ol' one-foot wave, Conner took the heat with solid rail surfing and good heat strategy.

"I told him to sit right next to him the whole heat just to mess with his head," said Coffin's coach Brad Gerlach. "The mind-games don't work as much on the 'CT, but a lot of these juniors don't have 'em down yet."

The moral of Conner's heat was this: grom surfing has grown up a lot lately. Used to be a couple air-reverses got you headlines in the post-game wrap-up...but now all the kids do those. The surfers really bolting down heats know how to execute a proper bottom turn, loosen the tail on the lip and stall hard for the barrel. Old school shit. Fundamentals. And kids like Kolohe Andino, Tyler Newton, Jack Freestone and Conner all proved the point by winning heats with a balanced, power-surfing approach. Maybe that's because they're all here with old-school coaches: Kolohe with Dino Andino. Tyler with Rainos Hayes. Freestone with Tom Carroll. And Conner with Brad Gerlach.

Classic coaching and solid fundamentals are going to play out huge in this event as the contest relocates from Canggu to Keremas in anticipation of tomorrow's swell. Keremas can hold just about any size and it's an ideal stage for both old-school fundamentals and new-school schralping.

The venue move is a major overnight undertaking for the Oakley crew, with scaffolding, sounds systems, and the massive infrastructure of their live webcast to relocate entirely. Which brings me to my second point: Pro Junior events have grown up quite a bit too. From personal trainers to mobile, A/C-equipped, live webcasts conducted by legendary "3 Degrees" director Matty Gye. This is a production on par with the Dream Tour, and the surfing is right there too.
Round 3 is half-way through, which means 8 juniors are already packing their bags and calling mom to cry. Soon there will be just sixteen, and with two days of pumping swell, it's bound to get really, really good. --NM